Spicks and Specks
by Acey Dearest
Summary: Fic challenge and Christmas present for Loony Lovegood. Perhaps there is a bit more to Kuwabara than even the demon Hiei thinks. Kuwabara and Hiei tolerance fic. One-shot. Complete.


"Spicks and Specks" by Acey  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, even though Christmas is coming soon...  
  
Author's Note: Merry (belated now) Christmas, Loony Lovegood. This fic is my present to you, the fic you dared me to do (and yep, that was an attempt at poetry).  
  
Darkness.  
The fire demon Hiei loved darkness. But love was too strong, too human, a word. He affiliated with darkness, then, as only one of his race ever could. It was eternal, night after day, as he continued with his activities. His small stature poised no problem to him as it might for a human of his size; Hiei had not been underestimated for long during any match. His agility and expertise with swordsmanship and combat saw to that as he defeated anyone foolish enough to try to fight him, anyone but Yusuke .  
He did not particulary like Yusuke but bore with him and allied with him and his oafish friend surnamed Kuwabara. His friend he had to bear with more; smart-alecked Yusuke rarely troubled him, but Kuwabara seemed to always be pestering him in some way with his sheer idiocy. He didn't appreciate even Kuwabara's fighting style-- so random and unintelligent it was a miracle the redhead hadn't died already. He needed to learn how to use tactics-- no, he needed to learn the whole meaning of the word tactics. Punching at whatever moved was by no means true fighting.  
Hiei sighed and boredly rolled his eyes, wondering how long he would wind up stuck with such a vexing type of human. Yusuke was only better in that he knew his limits as far as bothering with him. Kuwabara knew no such limits. A wonder that Kuwabara didn't irritate everyone he came into contact with. Kurama seemed amused by him somehow (but Kurama was rarely angry with anyone he had ever allied with and so it was pointless to compare reactions), Botan... was only irritated at Yusuke, and Hiei didn't care for Koenma enough to see what he thought about the oaf. That was everyone, almost, besides Keiko and Shizuru. And his sister, ice maiden Yukina.  
Yukina! She loved the nitwit! Somewhere in her kind heart so altogether unlike her brother's she had found some caring for the human. It was a despicable thought, and it gave Hiei a bitter taste in his mouth to think about it, his sister, being fond of such a person as Kuwabara. His sister was meant for someone better, surely, not a half-witted fool. He did not want her to cry but he most certainly did not want her to smile and laugh and blush with Kuwabara. Such a penance for his evil deeds was intolerable. It was like one of the characters from a Greek myth who was forced to stand in water he could not drink, and never be able to reach the fruit of a tree no matter how his hunger was. He could not stop Kuwabara's affection for his sister, could not stop her returning affection for him. Love was truly malicious in his eyes, having never experienced it in all his life and never feeling that he needed it anyway.  
He leaned back in his tree and refrained from contemplating further as he heard a rustling sound behind him. Hiei stiffened at the sound and looked down, searching for whoever had made it and hoping it wasn't yet another demon who had a death wish.  
"...that guy's in a tree?"  
The word "tree" was enunciated so it sounded more like "treeee," like the one who had spoken it was trying to italicize the word. He knew the rough voice instantly as Kuwabara's. He wearily, sarcastically responded.  
"You're on the ground."  
Hiei waited for Kuwabara's eventual jump, another proof of his sheer stupidity in thinking he would not hear. He was wrong. The redhead merely shrugged.  
"Well, it doesn't seem too comfortable."  
"You would fall out of it."  
He had spoken it aloud. He rarely let more than a few sardonic comments come out of his thoughts and into his speech, but this was another of Kuwabara's talents for irritating the demon, making him snap out as even his opponents hardly did, with words. Kuwabara was no opponent; he was supposedly an ally for the time being.  
"I guess so. I've never climbed one."  
Hiei scrutinized Kuwabara, medium blue school uniform, shock of hair, tall, with rather homely, plain features, and mannerisms that made the facial features worse. A contrast to Hiei, small statured, cold mannerisms, a face young-looking and dark, third eye maximizing the dread of opponents who faced him. With Kuwabara there was less dread at facing him than there was dread at facing a fly, and he knew it.  
"Hn."  
"I hate heights. I can jump all right but heights aren't so easy. I always think I'll start to fall, it seems like."  
"It's not hard to get used to heights."  
Kuwabara looked up at the figure in the tree again.  
"Apparently."  
"You don't fall nineteen times out of twenty unless you think you're going to fall," Hiei said as if reciting from a manual, apathetic, bored. "If you think you'll fall you generally will."  
"What if the branch breaks?"  
"Then you fall regardless unless you jump away, of course. What did you think would happen?"  
He watched to see if his last words had had any detering effect on Kuwabara, any hint that Hiei didn't want the conversation to go further. There was none, only the same expression on his face as there had been at the very beginning of their talk, not blank, but aware, mildly more aware than the masses gave him credit for being.  
"Just that."  
Hiei turned absently half around in the tree, waiting and hoping for the taller young man to leave.  
"Hey, Hiei."  
"Hn."  
"You're really not that bad."  
"H--" Hiei stopped the sound midway as what Kuwabara said clicked in his mind.  
"No, you're not."  
Hiei's dignity struggled with the remark. Had it been Yusuke to say such he would have scoffed. He would have known that Kurama was lying through his teeth had he said something like that. But this was Kuwabara talking, Kuwabara, the poor student, the half-witted fighter-- Kuwabara, with as serious a tone to his rough voice as any.  
"Well--"  
He spared him unconsciously.  
"Well, see you tomorrow, then."  
With that Kuwabara was gone, as Hiei watched him depart, as something told him that perhaps the idiot was not such an idiot after all.  
  
finis 


End file.
